An impressive number of people are watching “Revolution” on their DVRs. It is tied with “Modern Family” as the most recorded program on TV! In TV land, they have something called Live+7, which are ratings the day of broadcast plus everyone who watches the program on DVR next 7 days. “Revolution” is one of the 5 most watched shows on television in the Live+7 ratings. That’s impressive… really impressive. Other than Sunday Night Football, “Revolution” is the top program on NBC. Executive Producer JJ Abrams has been in this rarified air before, with Lost. Let’s just hope “Revolution” can maintain momentum and end better than “Lost” did (yes, I am still bitter!!).

Now, onto the recap of Episode 5.

The episode begins with Capt. Neville engaged in an improvised boxing match with his men. He is whupping up on them and challenges Danny. Danny, surprisingly, gets in a good shot or two, but Neville ends up taking him out fairly easily. I wonder when Danny’s asthma is going to be a storyline again.

Flashback time and we get to see Capt. Neville in his past life as an insurance adjuster. He was too nice in granting a claim and his boss fires him. I suspect that life is better for Neville since the power went out.

Back to present day and Charlie Company has buried Maggie. Miles shows little sympathy. “It is just a body in the ground.” He wants to move on and catch up to Neville and Danny. As they walk through the woods… A whistle! Charlie does not know what it is, because she has never heard a steam whistle before, but it is a train.

Finally! A train! Electricity may be dead, but steam power lives!! For those of you who have not been reading the comments-section each week, plenty of fans who “love to hate” “Revolution” have been wondering why there were no steam powered engines on the show. I mean, it is not like the inner workings of a steam engine were lost when the power went out. There are many books that talk about it at length. So, why did it take Monroe and everyone else 15 years to build one? It makes no sense… but that is what we love about “Revolution”… I think.

Back in Philly at General Monroe’s headquarters, Monroe tells Rachel, “Your son is boarding the train and will be here soon.” Ummm, how exactly did he get this news? A few weeks ago it appeared that their only form of long-distance communications was sending a rider on horseback. Did Neville get to the train and promptly send a rider to Monroe? This makes no sense!! Rachel pleads with Monroe not to bring her son and says she will “tell him everything.” “I know you will,” he replies, “because I have your son.”

Quick side note about trains — If Monroe was smart, he would not be using trains for military purposes, at least not at first. He should be using them to win the hearts and minds of the general public. He could allow the public to move about his territory, promote commerce, and re-establish communications across long distances. An unpopular dictator is short-lived, but one who does things to help society function can actually last a while. Monroe needs to study his history – the famous saying about Mussolini comes to mind. He may have been a tyrannical dictator, but “at least the trains ran on time.”

Charlie scouts out the town around the train and reports that the train is leaving in the morning. Charlie, Nora, and Miles all decide to go out and see if they can find Danny. They leave Aaron behind to guard their captive, Nate. If Nate gets away from Aaron, I won’t even begin to be surprised.

Neville is holding Danny in a bank vault. Danny seems pretty dismissive of Neville. He taunts him for getting off by beating up an 18 year old kid. Neville looks like he might be a little bit hurt.

We flash back to the night of the blackout and see Neville coming home from his job, the one he just got fired from. His neighborhood is loud and his family is out of place there. We meet his wife, who is played by Kim Raver, who was on 24 and Grey’s Anatomy. Neville goes to the basement to work out and is hitting a punching bag. His young son, Jason, comes down and Neville lets him have a punch. The moment the kid hits the bag, the power goes out.

Nora is exploring the town and goes into what appears to be a printing show. The man who runs it is trying to print a Harry Potter book. Nora says, “I’m looking for a biography of Joe Biden.” The printer looks at her with surprise. It is Jeff Fahey, who was Lapidus on Lost. Revolution is full of Lost alumni!!

He introduces himself as “Hutch” and he is a member of the rebels, just like Nora. He tells her that the entire underground has been wiped out in this area, including his wife. “It’s just me now,” he says. Nora says, “No, its you and me. And we’re going to blow up that train.”

Capt. Neville comes across Charlie. He seems suspicious and Charlie concocts some story about spying on her boyfriend. I don’t think Neville is convinced she is telling the truth. She tails him and he grabs her. Just then, Miles jumps out and challenges Neville. Miles and Neville each have knives to each other’s throats. They continue to grapple while having a conversation. Miles offers to trade Danny for Nate, their captive. Neville says, “no way.” Some militia approach and Miles runs off.

Back with Aaron and Nate. Aaron drops the special power-medallion. Nate grabs it but gives it back. Nora returns along with Hutch. She tells Aaron that she is going to blow up the train. Aaron says, “What if Danny is on the train?” Nora says, “Miles better find him first.”

Miles and Charlie are together in the woods and he is chewing her out. “Surprise was our only advantage,” Miles says, “and you threw it away.”

Another flashback, this time to 6 weeks after the blackout. Neville and his wife as still hold-up in their house. Neville hears something and goes to investigate. It is his neighbor, who is trying to steal from him. Neville beats the man silly, probably killing him. His wife and son witness it and seem horrified. His son looks surprisingly like a young version of “Nate.” Please note that I write this recap real-time, and do not go back and edit my comments. So, I am going on the record right now with Nate being Neville’s son. When they reveal this at the end of the episode, feel free to be really impressed with me

Back in present times, Charlie is begging Nate to help them. He refuses and manages to get away. He is going to go back to Neville and Neville is going to call him “Jason.” I can feel it, I tell ya!!

Monroe and one of his generals are talking about fighting with “The Georgia Federation” and some of the other territories. “Give me one Blackhawk attack copter,” he says, “and they will bow before me like a god.” At least the guy has a small ego!

Nora is building her bomb. She makes it by hallowing out a log and then puts it with the other logs that the militia will use to power the steam train. When they throw her log into the boiler, booom!

Neville is ready to leave, even though the train engineer wants to wait another day. He orders them to pull out. He speaks to Nate for a moment but they do not acknowledge each other as father and son. Maybe I am wrong about them.

Nora sees Danny on the train and says she wants to stop the explosion so it will not kill Danny. Hutch tells her no. He wants revenge for his wife being killed by the militia and he stabs Nora. So much for Jeff Fahey being a good guy. Nora doesn’t seem that badly injured and tells Miles, Charlie, and Aaron that Danny is on the train and that the bomb is soon going to go off. It is rescue time!

Aaron stays with Nora to tend her back to health. Miles and Charlie grab a couple horses and catch up with the train, which is moving quite nicely over tracks that have not been used in 15 years. Miles says he will get the bomb and tells Charlie to go find Danny. Ummm, this makes no sense to me as Danny is sure to be guarded, probably by Neville, but the bomb is probably just hanging out with train engineers. Why wouldn’t you send Miles on the more dangerous mission?

Charlie finds Danny, who is only being guarded by Neville. Yeah, that makes sense! Danny and Neville get in a fight which Charlie joins. They momentarily get the drop on Neville, but as they are escaping, Nate grabs Charlie and Neville grabs Danny. Neville orders Nate to bring him Charlie and says he plans to shoot her. Nate refuses and throws Charlie off the train instead. Neville does not look pleased with Nate.

Meanwhile, Miles sees the bomb thrown into the boiler. He fights with a guard and manages to throw the bomb away just in time. He also jumps off the train. He and Charlie saved Danny, but Neville still has him, plus the train in undamaged. Ummm, they really failed this episode and now Danny is going to be very far away from them.

Miles and Charlie hook up with Nora and Aaron again. Nora is fine despite being stabbed. Realistic much?!?! Miles tells Charlie he can’t be the fun-loving uncle she used to know, “because I have to walk to Philadelphia and kill Monroe. I have to kill my best friend.” Charlie and the rest of them all say they are going with him to Philly.

Final scene of the episode – Neville and Nate and the rest of the militia have ridden the train back to Philly. Kim Raver is there to greet them. She hugs Neville and then turns to Nate and says, “Jason.” “Hello mother, he replies, it is good to be home.”

TOLD YA THAT NATE WAS NEVILLE’S SON!!

Guards are carting Danny to Monroe’s HQ. Rachel sees him and is hurt. Monroe says, “What was Ben working on?” Rachel grabs a piece of paper and says, “We were both working on it.” She draws one of the medallions and says, “If you want to turn the power back on, it start with these pendants. There are 12 of them.”

Fade to black!

Ok, “Revolution” fans, time for you to chime in with your comments. Were you glad to see them kinda, sorta address the steam-engine thing by having a train? Were you as unsurprised as I was to see that Nate was really Neville’s son? Are you pleased that Jeff Fahey joined the cast, even though I suspect it was a short-lived appearance? What about Kim Raver? Leave a comment and let’s chat about it!

If you want to read more of Jason Evans’ comments on the movie and TV industry, follow him on Twitter @TVFilmTalk